King John Men and Masculinity Quotes

The Bastard really won't let it rest, will he? Here, he makes the same joke he's been making in the previous quotations. It goes something like this: (a) Sir Robert wasn't much of a man; (a) I am much of a man; (b) therefore, Sir Robert isn't my father, and good riddance to him.

Louis the Dauphin presents us with another macho stereotype: the macho man as narcissist. When Louis looks in the eyes of Blanche, the woman he has been given an opportunity to marry, he is struck by a beauty he can at first only call a "wonder, or a wondrous miracle." What is it that has so attracted his attention? Why, his own reflection, of course. If this isn't Shakespeare's ultimate joke on excessive macho posturing, we don't know what is. We suspect this line must have gotten a big laugh from its original audience—and it probably still does today.

Here we see another interesting side of the masculine ideal of toughness: it always defines itself in terms of its opposite, womanliness. Because crying is associated with being feminine, or (in his words) "womanish," Hubert feels like less of a man when tears start flowing from his eyes. Of course, this is probably a good thing—if being a man means following through on his orders and heartlessly blinding and murdering an innocent child.